Stephanie Roble perfect at Lysekil Women’s Match

World #4 Stephanie Roble of the USA ran the table during the first stage of the Lysekil Women’s Match, going undefeated in the round robin series to lead the top eight teams into the next phase of the Women’s International Match Racing Series event.

“Our secret is the team work,” Roble explains. “The girls are focusing and doing their jobs really well. That makes it a whole lot easier to be at the helm.”

As the second event of four on the 2015 WIM Series, the spectator crowds on the cliffs of Släggö Island got a truly breath-taking show, practically within arm’s reach, when Roble faced World #2, local hope Anna Östling.

“In the prestart we actually put Stephanie up on the cliffs,” Östling laughs, admitting that that particular move in the game was something she had dreamed of performing.

Not surprisingly, Roble wasn’t as excited as the Swede over the situation, being penalized by the umpires for it. But she fought back, and managed to get off the starting line with a narrow lead.

“We focused on extending and took the penalty at the finish,” said Roble. “We barely made it, it was very close.”

Östling also made it to the quarters, finishing third in the round-robin behind runner-up and World #1 Camilla Ulrikkeholm Klinkby of Denmark.

French Anne-Claire Le Berre had a tough day in the beautiful archipelago of Western Sweden, posting only two wins but four losses. With her 4,5 points she barely made it to the quarterfinals.

“Today wasn’t a very good day for us,” she admitted. “We made too many small mistakes and didn’t do very good starts either. That made everything more difficult for us. Tomorrow is a new stage, and we’re really happy to be in.”

Klaartje Zuiderbaan of The Netherlands used the round-robin to get her partly new team together, finishing on fourth place and a quarterfinal slot.

“Sailing the quarterfinals is just the first goal,” the experienced helmsman says. “We’re still learning, and every race is better than the one before. I hope that will take us further in the regatta.”

The top eight teams advance now on Friday to the quarterfinals, and then Saturday with semi finals and final.